Despite the economy, it appears some businesses continue booming. In July, we reported that Exxon Mobil posted a net income of $11.68 billion. Well, record broken. According to CNN, its third-quarter profit was $14.83 billion:

The latest quarter’s net income equaled $1,865.69 per second, nearly $400 a second more than the prior mark.

How about reinvesting some of the profits tax toward alternative energy research?

How about actually thinking about the economics of taxing industries higher when they’re more profitable because the sale price of their product has increased? Prices are how companies are informed of changes in demand – when they’re increasing quicker than marginal cost, it’s a signal to sell more, when they’re increasing slower, it’s a signal to sell less. Taxes increase effective cost, thus signalling to produce less. Thus, “windfall” taxes encourage companies to produce less when demand is the highest. Since the marginal cost of oil production increases the more we extract (companies take the easiest stuff to get out first), it also lowers prices when the “windfall” tax is not in effect, since less was extracted during the last “windfall” period. Thus, gas is made more expensive when people need it more and less so when they need it less than the baseline.

This is basic econ and can be demostrated with simple algebra and the difference between a windfall tax and a per-unit tax on the oil industry would have economic consequences in the billions of dollars.

Better yet, how about boycotting Exxon-Mobil completely? These record-profit people are the same ones who baulked at fixing the mess after the Valdez disaster, who are obviously grossly over-charging at the pump, who are spending only one percent of their money on alternative energy research, and who are begging for government handouts for exploration so they can get drain out more oil and make even larger profits.

But quarterly profits are a lagging indicator. In this case of the record high oil prices of last summer. The next quarter should show a record (quarter to quarter) drop in profits, as the price of oil has crashed.

Hydrogen fuel celled cars? That would be a huge waste of money. (1) Fuel cells are ridiculously expensive, and need a major overhaul every 3000 miles. (2) Our methods of producing hydrogen have poor thermodynamic efficiency. Might as well burn oil or natural gas. We all know that electrification is the way to go for transportation. Hydrogen is an expensive distraction.